Azerbaijan, World Bank discuss AZURE project and Green Energy Corridor

Photo: Parviz Shahbazov/X

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 22. Azerbaijan discussed cooperation with the World Bank on the AZURE project and the Caspian-Black Sea-European Green Energy Corridor.

This was announced by Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov on his page on the social media platform X.

“We discussed our cooperation on the AZURE project and the Caspian-Black Sea-Europe Green Energy Corridor with Stephanie Gil, the World Bank’s Practice Manager for Energy in the Europe and Central Asia Region. We assessed opportunities for joint efforts to expand renewableenergy generation, strengthen the electricitygrid and develop regional energy interconnections,” the post reads.

Meanwhile, the main goal of the AZURE project is to ensure the sustainable and secure integration into the power grid of 2 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity currently under construction in the country.

To this end, the 500/330 kV “Navahi” power hub is being built in Azerbaijan, which will serve as the main hub substation. High-voltage power lines with voltages of 500 and 330 kilovolts are being laid from this hub in various directions across the country. As part of the first phase of the project, funded by Azenerji's internal resources and partially by the state budget, construction of the 330-kilovolt section of the Navahi substation is nearing completion, as well as the 500-kilovolt transmission line from “Navahi” to Absheron and the 330-kilovolt transmission lines to the “Bilasuvar” and “Banka” solar power plants. Upon completion of this phase, the “Banka” and “Bilasuvar” solar power plants will be connected to the unified power grid.

In the second phase of the project, financed by the World Bank, plans call for the procurement and installation of equipment for the 500-kilovolt section of the “Navahi” substation, including transformers, as well as the construction of a 500-kilovolt transmission line from “Navahi” to Mingachevir and 330-kilovolt lines toward Alat, Absheron, and Gobu. This phase is expected to be completed within three years.